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Same-Sex Unions Will Enhance the Traditions of Marriage

Same-Sex Unions Will Enhance the Traditions of Marriage

Gay couples deserve the benefits of marriage as a matter of civil rights and social justice.

by

Chris Queally

CommonDreams.org Editor's Note: This year, the Maine State Legislature and Governor Baldacci - with the rousing support of Maine residents - passed one of the most comprehensive Marriage Equality laws in the country. Opponents of equality have now forced a statewide vote to challenge the new law. The Vote No on #1 Campaign - which supports marriage equality - is fighting bravely against the misleading and hateful campaign lead by those who would deny equal rights to our gay, lesbian, and transgendered neighbors. The following was written (full disclosure) by this editor's father, but it appears here as testimony to the dignity and strength of those who fight, think, and activate on behalf of those who are denied the rights that others enjoy. Let Maine's battle against those standing in the way of equality not go the way of California's. In the end, this battle will be national and then global. But for now, we must fight it where the lines are drawn.

SCARBOROUGH, Maine — The headline of the Sept. 14 Maine Voices commentary
by Tim Russell – co-founder of The Maine Marriage Alliance – reads:
"There's lots of proof same-sex marriage will harm the rights of
others." We read the column to find there is no proof whatsoever and
lots of opinion based on religion.

Without the rule of law –
remembering that laws change and evolve – there would have been no
advances in civil rights, and the "Rights of Man" would have never
given rise to freedom in France and America by limiting the power of
kings and nobles.

Without the rule of law – remembering that
laws change and evolve – there would have been no freedom from slavery,
no women's suffrage and no civil rights movement. And, of course, those
changes in the law, and in society, always followed great struggle.

So
over time and with struggle, we reinterpret what is right and become
more inclusive as we discover that the changes sought in the name of
social justice are good for the larger society – even when they are at
first very difficult for those who have had to accommodate change
against their will, like the nobility of Europe, the king of England
and white men everywhere.

Mr. Russell begins his column by
asserting that: "Traditional marriage is more substantial and profound
than can be contained in our society's current conception of 'love' and
'equality.'"

That is absolutely true. That is why it is so
important for all people to have access to traditional marriage. That
is the very point. Gay couples don't want to eliminate the "substantial
and profound" traditions of marriage. As a matter of civil rights and
social justice, they want access to these traditions – just like every
other citizen.

Mr. Russell goes on to assert that there would
be "no logical, philosophical or legally rational basis for prohibiting
people who want multiple wives, multiple husbands, or any combination
thereof from marrying."

Nonsense! This is an obfuscation
designed to help you take your eye off the ball. The law as passed has
nothing to do with any of the traditional impediments such as bigamy
and incest. Hundreds, indeed, thousands of people worked very hard to
get the current law passed.

Logically, philosophically and
legally, you need a large constituency of people to change or pass a
law. Russell creates a straw man or straw menage. There is no
constituency for multiple, underage or incestuous marriage.

Russell
then goes on to define who can get married. But he distorts the list to
serve his own purpose. He adds to the traditional impediments of
bigamy, incest and majority, a fourth: You "must marry someone of the
opposite sex."

In the Old South it was: You must marry someone
of the same race. But we changed that tradition by changing the laws.
Did that benefit society? Yes. Did it make some folks angry? Yes! But
society was evolving.

Russell then asserts – with no citation,
so it is impossible to check his facts – that "Social science shows
conclusively that children do best when raised by their married
biological mother and father."

I challenge that statement. Is
it fact or opinion? What was the methodology? Who funded the study?
(The scientific standard when using data to support an argument is to
cite the source so the reader can examine the science underlying the
data.)

What an insult to anyone raised by a granny, an aunt or
uncle or an adoptive parent and to all the good men and women – gay and
straight – who have successfully and lovingly raised children not
biologically their own!

Finally – in a kind of reverse logic –
Russell asserts that: "In states where same-sex marriage is legal, we
are already seeing the threat it poses to religious liberties and
personal right of conscience."

It is more the case that religious license seeks to suppress civil liberties and individual conscience.

That
is why our Founding Fathers in their wisdom and experience – having
seen the bloody religious wars of Europe – put into our Constitution a
separation clause and a free-exercise clause, in order to achieve the
delicate balance between freedom of religion and freedom from religion.

It
is a balance that the same-sex marriage law brilliantly achieves and
why it was passed into law by both houses of our Legislature with
bipartisan support and signed by our governor to begin with.

My final claim in support of the law is the 14th Amendment. It is a matter of due process and equality before the law.

Mr.
Russell says marriage is a substantial and profound tradition. I say
you cannot bar a substantial and profound minority from it. Unless, of
course, you'd like to bring back separate (but equal) drinking
fountains, classrooms and seats on the bus.

Chris Queally is a retired high school teacher, wonderful grandfather, and resident of Scarborough, Maine.

If you want to help the effort here in Maine you can check out Protect Maine Equality (Vote No on #1) at their website. They are accepting donations, of course, but you could also participate in the Volunteer Vacation program. They don't call it Vacationland for nothing, and Maine is lovely this time of year!

Further

Whew. That was way too close for comfort. And yeah, the country's in a sorry state to have come to this. But not only does Doug Jones become the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alabama in 25 years; his win is a blunt rejection of all the hate-mongering, gay-bashing, race-baiting, sexual-assaulting, serial lying crap of losers Moore and Trump and Bannon and their ugly ilk. Forward to mid-terms. And once and for all, to Moore in all his evil: "Fuck you and the horse you (badly) rode in on."